John
Farrow ("Hondo"/"Calcutta"/"The Big Clock") directs
this dramatically stiff but visually pleasing costume
historical drama on American Revolutionary naval hero
John Paul Jones (Robert Stack), a lavish production
that was shot
mostly in Spain.It's adapted by writers Ben Hecht andJesse Lasky, Jr. from the
fictionalized historical story "Nor'wester" by
Clements Ripley. It's mostly an awkwardly shot and
tedious affair, with the characters seeming more like
historical figures than real characters, but it perks
up occasionally with some excellent sea action scenes.

John Paul Jones (Robert
Stack) was Scottish
born in 1747 to a gardener father. At 13 he runs away
to be a seaman on British merchant and slave ships and
excels as a navigator so by age 21 he commands his own
boat. When in charge of a boat in the West Indies
involved in slave trafficking, Jones discovers he
couldn't go on because of his distaste for the slave
trade business and quits the British navy to join his
businessman brother William in Virginia, only to learn
he died a few months ago. Jones hires colonist
attorney Patrick Henry (Macdonald Carey) to free a
couple of slaves his brother wanted freed before his
death, but soon finds himself the patriot's romantic
rival for socialite Dorothea Danders (Erin O'Brien).
Jones decides to settle in Virginia as a farmer to
pursue his love interest, but her family considers him
an ill-suitor because of his commoner background and
he also discovers he doesn't care for farm work.
Jones, an action man, again yearns to ply his trade as
a navy man, and to prove his loyalty to the
revolutionary colonies he is commissioned in the
Continental navy as second-in-command on a battleship
in the Bahamas. Showing great leadership in
battle against the British, Jones soon commands his
own ship and accomplishes impressive victories. The
heroic Jones is honored in France for his victories at
sea and Benjamin
Franklin (Charles Coburn) is his tour guide in Paris.
There Jones meets the love of his life, Aimee de Tellison (Marisa Pavan), the illegitimate daughter
of the king, Louis XVI, but is told a commoner can't
marry royalty. Franklin then encourages Jones to
command a newly built frigate in Holland and invade
the British Isles. Jones raids British ports and
destroys many vessels, which gives the Brits a
distaste for this costly war. When Congress accepts a
false report from a weasel aristocrat Jones
disciplined that he can't lead men, he returns to
Paris without a ship. But reunited with Aimee and
Franklin, the French king is convinced by them to
build a new ship for Jones named Le Bonhomme Richard in
which Jones flies the American flag over it and
rewards France with any ships he captures. Jones' most
impressive feat was defeating the HMS Serapis and its
Captain Pearson (Peter Cushing). Jones when facing
certain defeat is asked to surrender, but replies "I
have not yet begun to fight" and then presses onto
victory. After the colonies win independence, Jones'
appeals to Congress to continue a peacetime navy are
ignored as he's told they are not financially feasible
because of outstanding wartime debts. Instead he's
loaned out in 1790 to Russia's Empress Catherine the
Great (Bette
Davis) to be a
rear-admiral. There Jones leads her downtrodden fleet
to stunning victories over her Turkish enemies on the
Black Sea. But Jones returns from Russia a sick man
and even though he's now able to wed his dream French
noblewoman Aimee
because King Louis has bestowed on him the rank of chevalier, it's too late and he
passes away after dictating a letter to her on what it
takes to be an American naval officer.

The legacy of John Paul
Jones, the
first great hero of the American navy, is chronicled
with great respect and awe for his sea heroics. It
also shows that even though he was branded a
troublemaker and was not an easy person to get along
with, as he took on the political elites in his
fervent belief that America must always be protected
by a vibrant navy. Eventually he was proven right, and
his fighting spirit lives on in the modern navy. It's
just too bad this historical biopic was so lifeless
and dull, especially since Jones was such an engaging
and lively heroic figure and deserved a better biopic.